The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 11, 2025) acquitted Surendra Koli, the prime accused in the Nithari killings, in the only case where his conviction and life sentence had remained in force. The court said that convictions, particularly in cases involving capital punishment, cannot rest on mere “conjecture” and that due process must prevail even in the most horrific crimes.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai and Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath observed that upholding the 2011 verdict convicting Mr. Koli would amount to a “manifest miscarriage of justice” when he had already been acquitted in 12 other connected cases arising from the same set of facts and evidence. The Bench therefore directed that he be released forthwith, if not required in any other case or proceeding.
“To allow a conviction to stand on an evidentiary basis that this Court has since rejected as involuntary or inadmissible in the very same fact matrix offends Article 21 of the Constitution. It also violates Article 14 of the Constitution, since like cases must be treated alike. Arbitrary disparity in outcomes on an identical record is inimical to equality before the law”, the Bench observed.
The Bench was hearing Mr. Koli’s curative petition, his final legal remedy before the Supreme Court. A curative petition, typically heard in chambers, is the rarest form of judicial review and is entertained only in exceptional circumstances such as denial of natural justice, judicial bias, or a fundamental miscarriage of process resulting in grave injustice.
Tuesday’s verdict draws to a close nearly two decades of litigation surrounding one of India’s most harrowing criminal trials. It also marks a rare instance of the apex court overturning its own earlier ruling through the exercise of its extraordinary curative jurisdiction.
In July, the Supreme Court had affirmed Mr. Koli’s acquittal in 12 of the 13 cases linked to the Nithari killings, citing serious procedural lapses, unreliable evidence, and multiple irregularities in the investigation. It had accordingly dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) appeals against the Allahabad High Court’s 2023 judgments.
The curative petition concerned the sole case in which Mr. Koli’s conviction and death sentence had been upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011. The Allahabad High Court had commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2015, citing the inordinate delay in the disposal of his mercy petition. His review petition had earlier been dismissed after an open-court hearing on October 28, 2014.
While acknowledging that the “finality of decisions” is a cornerstone of judicial discipline, the Bench observed that the court’s extraordinary curative jurisdiction must still be invoked when a conviction rests on evidence already found to be legally unsound, especially when such infirmities have been recognised by the Supreme Court itself in related cases.
It then proceeded to highlight several serious irregularities in the probe, noting that the crime scene was left unsecured before excavation, the remand papers contained contradictory versions, and the accused was detained for an extended period without a prompt, court-monitored medical examination.
“Crucial scientific opportunities were lost when post-mortem material and other forensic outputs were not promptly and properly brought on record… The investigation did not adequately examine obvious witnesses from the household and neighbourhood and did not pursue material leads, including the organ-trade angle flagged by a governmental committee. Each lapse weakened the provenance and reliability of the evidence and narrowed the path to the truth,” the Bench observed.
‘Deep regret’ that culprit remains at large
The court acknowledged that the Nithari killings were “heinous” and that the “suffering of the families is beyond measure.” However, it expressed “deep regret” that despite an extensive investigation, the identity of the actual perpetrator could not be established “in a manner that meets the legal standards.”
Castigating the investigating agencies for their “negligence,” which it said had thwarted the effort to identify the real culprit, the Bench observed, “When investigations are timely, professional and constitutionally compliant, even the most difficult mysteries can be solved, and many crimes can be prevented through early intervention. It is, therefore, deeply unfortunate that in the present case, negligence and delay corroded the fact-finding process and foreclosed avenues that might have led to the true offender.”
The Nithari killings, which came to light in 2007, stunned the nation with their sheer depravity. The discovery of skeletal remains of several children in a drain behind a Noida house where Mr. Koli worked as a domestic aide exposed a series of murders that shocked the public conscience. The house belonged to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, who was also named as an accused in multiple charge sheets.
Following widespread public outrage, the probe was transferred to the CBI, which alleged that Mr. Koli lured young girls to the house, sexually assaulted and killed them, and mutilated their bodies. He was also accused of cannibalism. Between 2005 and 2007, 16 cases of rape and murder were registered. The prosecution claimed to have recovered the weapon used to dismember the victims’ bodies. The trial court convicted Mr. Koli in 13 cases, while Mr. Pandher, initially convicted in two, was later acquitted in all. After the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling, Mr. Koli was left with one surviving conviction.
While acquitting him in July, the Supreme Court had observed that the recoveries made during the investigation were not corroborated by any statement under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, which deals with recoveries based on disclosures made by an accused in custody.
The CBI had approached the top court challenging an October 2023 judgment of the Allahabad High Court that acquitted Mr. Koli, after faulting the agency for its failure to investigate the suspected organ-trade angle that had emerged during the probe.
Published – November 11, 2025 01:04 pm IST
